Parts of the Gaza Strip are experiencing extreme food shortages that surpassed famine levels. The Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor whose assessments are relied on by U.N. agencies, reported on March 18 that without an immediate ceasefire and a surge of food to areas cut off by fighting, mass death is imminent.
70% of people in some areas of northern Gaza, according to the IPC, are experiencing the most severe level of food shortage—more than three times the 20% threshold considered to be famine. The IPC believes that inhabitants are in danger of dying at the famine scale, which is defined as two out of every 10,000 people dying each day from starvation, malnutrition, and illness, even though it does not have enough data on mortality rates.
The health ministry in Gaza reports that three adults and 27 children already died from starvation.
The IPC emphasized that preventing famine requires an immediate political decision for a ceasefire, along with a significant and immediate increase in humanitarian and commercial access to the entire population of Gaza. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, speaking at a Brussels conference on aid for Gaza, stated that Gaza is no longer on the brink of famine but is in a state of famine.
In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz urged Borrell to “stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defence against Hamas’ crimes”. Katz stated that Israel allowed extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help. Still, aid was violently disturbed by Hamas militants with collaboration by the U.N.'s aid agency UNRWA.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres referred to the IPC report as an “appalling indictment” and called on Israel to allow complete and unfettered access to all parts of Gaza. Britain’s foreign minister David Cameron said he would carefully review the report and emphasized the need for urgent action to avoid a famine.
Israel, which initially allowed aid into Gaza through only two checkpoints on the enclave’s southern edge, says it is opening more routes by land, as well as allowing sea shipments and airdrops. However, aid agencies report that they still cannot get enough supplies through or distribute them safely, especially in the north.
In the ruins of Gaza City, the main settlement in the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces launched a major assault on Al Shifa hospital overnight. Once the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, it is now one of the only medical facilities still partially functioning in the territory's north.
Negotiations for a ceasefire in the war, now in its sixth month, were due to resume on March 18 with an Israeli delegation led by the country’s spy chief heading to Qatar. However, an Israeli official said finalizing any deal would probably take at least two more weeks.
President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call on March 18 that a military operation in Rafah would deepen anarchy in Gaza. They agreed that teams from each side would meet in Washington to discuss it.
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